Campaign Story

My name is Johnna and my husband’s name is Todd. We are a blended family. I have 2 daughters of my own. I have a 6 year old and a 13 year old. He also has 2 daughters. He has a 14 year old and then a 9 year old in which he took in as his own who knows no different other than that’s her dad. He has been diabetic since he was 5 years old. He has had quite the trials and tribulations with diabetes. Being diabetic comes with a lot of health problems one of them being infertility. About 7 years ago or so he went into a diabetic keto acidosis and he ended up being super sick. He spiked a super high fever which then lead to him somehow developing what’s called retrograde ejaculation. This is where the semen flows backwards into the bladder and is not able to function properly as it should. We have went to a specialist and done testing. I am fine and have no issues, but he will have to do a biopsy to remove the semen then of course we will have to IVF in order for me to conceive. There is nothing I want more than to grow our family and to have a beautiful, healthy baby.

On top of infertility problems Todd and our family has been through a lot of struggles over the last couple years. A little back story:

Todd has been type 1 diabetic since he was 5 years old as stated above. The last 3 years , he has been fairly well controlled. Back in September of 2021 we were able to get him on an insulin pump that communicates with a continuous glucose monitor. It has been such a blessing for him.

Back in August of 2022, he had an incident where he rolled a motor on his foot. With him being diabetic and having neuropathy it did not affect him at that moment in time. About 2 weeks later, we noticed significant swelling. We went to the emergency room in town, had multiple test, seen multiple providers to see what was going on with his foot. He was admitted. The first provider we seen told him he needed an amputation. He just kept saying I’m sorry for the bad news with no explanation as to why. Podiatry was then consulted while inpatient who then told us an amputation was not necessary and we will follow up outpatient to develop a plan. They ended up sending us to KU Podiatry and then to KU Orthopedic which we then found he had what’s called diabetic Charcot. Charcot foot is a rare and disabling disorder.

After receiving this news, we consulted with the surgeon at KU who then told us Todd needed to have a pretty intense surgery to fuse these bones and place metal plates and rods in.

We scheduled his surgery for April of 2023. It was 2 weeks before his surgery he developed a wound on the bottom of his foot. They told us to come on in for the surgery and they will decide at that time to proceed or not. He gets back to be checked in and they decided it was not safe to proceed. Due to this wound he was not able to work or do anything. We then applied for short term disability. His surgery was rescheduled to June 22nd. We go in for this one, everything went great according to his surgeon. We start going to his follow up appointments, wasn’t healing as well as they would like it too by that time. The nurse practitioner didn’t like how his incision site was looking. He was placed on oral antibiotics.

We get referred to wound care following that appointment. He then started to develop a heel blister. They did a culture came back positive for staph infection so once again it was treated with an antibiotic.

We didn’t understand why these wounds that had nothing to do with the incision area were developing. October 13th , he developed another blister on the side of his right foot again nothing to do with incision site. I had sent wound care a message with a photo attached concerned about this area to get a response that it will be addressed at next appointment. I immediately get frustrated because his appointment isn’t set until 11/7.

That same day that I sent that message to their office, Todd then later that evening started getting chills and developed a fever which mind you was 103. I immediately call the nurse hotline who stated to get him to the ER.

We then proceed to go to KU ER because that’s where his provider is that did his surgery. We get all checked in, sit there for 3 hours and we’re told they can’t give us a time of when he will be seen. I could tell

Todd was not in good shape. We left that ER, proceed to Saint Luke’s. They then stated that they have no rooms and he wouldn’t be able to be seen until the next day. We then left there and came to yet another hospital.

We walk into the ER at North KC and get right in and get back to a room. They run a bunch of cultures and admit him. The infectious disease provider comes in and tell us Todd now has staph infection in his bone and in his blood so it’s very serious. Mind you this is the same infection wound care stated he had that was never rechecked after finishing that antibiotic. He was discharged on from the hospital a week and half later with a pic line for 8 weeks plus home health to help care for him. He also had to have all of that metal and hardware removed from his foot due to the infection that was spread throughout his body. This was very scary due to him already having wounds.

In the midst of all of this he was denied for long term disability due to him having a pre existing condition of diabetes. We then proceeded to apply him for regular disability and that was also denied. His employer terminated him despite being on medical leave so we tried for unemployment which was denied stating he was under the care of a doctor. We are now in the middle of fighting an appeal for his disability because still to this day he still cannot walk on his foot and is still dealing with a wound that is not healing. Financially we just cannot afford IVF on our own. Insurance won’t cover it and grants and scholarships are our only hope.

God has been by our side throughout all of trials and our journeys! I pray and hope that we get blessed with a sweet blessing!

Any support and help would be appreciated and we would be so grateful. Thank you for listening to our story!